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What is Lineaism, you ask? Other than shorthand for "the work of Jonathan Blackwell"...

Lineasim began as a style of drawing. Jonathan began drawing as a small child and later discovered he was re-living the experience of Egon Schiele, an expressionist artist from Fin de Siecle Vienna, and the star pupil of Gustav Klimt. Blackwell, like Egon Schiele, practices the style of continuous drawing after Auguste Rodin, where rapid strokes are delivered from the shoulder, translating more energy into the image than drawing solely from the wrist.

Lineaism is not only continuous drawing, but also painting. The painting technique is similar to the Sumi-Ye style from Japan. In another variation of Lineaism the brush strokes are arranged in a radial pattern inspired by Vincent van Gogh. Lineaism draws inspiration from both Italian schools of painting, disegno and dipinto. The school of disegno, practiced by Michelangelo Buonnarotti and Leonardo Da Vinci, takes drawing as its foundation upon which paint is applied. Dipinto, on the other hand, applies brush strokes directly with less emphasis on the underlying drawing.

Under the tutelage of playwright Samuel Adamson, Blackwell wrote and directed the first Lineaist play, Unrewind, in 2001. Going back its roots in visual art, the theatrical style of Lineaism was inspired in part by the dynamic relationship between expressionist artists Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka. Kokoschka wrote plays in addition to exhibiting paintings alongside Schiele in the Vienna Secession. This collusion across artforms is fundamental to Lineaism, and is embodied by the mantra emblazoned above the Secession entrance in Vienna, "To Each Age Its Art, and To Art, Its Freedom."

The first feature length Lineaist Picture, Louvst, was produced in association with Duke University in 2004. If you've ever watched Richard Linklater's Slacker, Louvst may seem familiar. Like Linklater's first film in Austin, TX, Blackwell appears in front of as well as behind the camera, and delves deeply into conversations about relationships, religion, and politics. These themes are present in later Lineaist Pictures that feed on a network between the independent film scenes of North Carolina, California, and Australia.

Now Lineaism is also a linear timeline of all these events, and the lines that connect people in the process. Lineaism is connecting the dots from one project and one community to another. Jonathan Blackwell has founded a design firm, Lineaist Enterprises, LLC, in a shift to become a responsible global citizen with a local presence in communities around the world. Lineaist Enterprises sustains the creative force of Lineaism.

The Lineaist Timeline